Posted by Frank on August 02, 2003 at 02:39:23:
In Reply to: Re: Maintenance posted by andrew on August 01, 2003 at 00:37:34:
Guys, there is no reason to panic over tightening the head nuts every 35miles. Mine never had a wrench on them for 76,000 miles. Also, I used to be religeous about valve adjustments. Now it's done once in a great while only. Unless you ride open throttle all the time things will be fine. I'll tell you biggest thing to watch out for on the Savage is MAKE SURE YOUR OIL IS UP TO THE UPPER LEVEL AT ALL TIMES and change it on a regular basis. If you do this and ride reasonable your bike will last a long time. I've been on this list since '98 and I can't remember all the post about a Savage needing a rebuild after less than 10-15k. That's absurd! In all the cases it was because the owner never bothered to check or change the oil. When I was a regular on this site I used to preach this over and over. Remember the Savage does not hold much oil to begin with. I also suspect (my opinion only not based on fact) that the oil pump sits a little high in the crankcase. If the oil gets below a certain point the head gets starved. I came to this conclusion while the right hand crankcase cover was removed replacing the cam chain tensioner adjuster. I saw where the pump was located and remember thinking that it was a little higher than I thought. Damn I ramble a lot. My 2 cents.